Friday, January 04, 2013

The Obama administration tells us over and over and over again about their 'unprecedented support' for Israel. Tonight, we have more proof that's a load of crap. Chuck Hagel, President Hussein Obama's putative nominee for Secretary of Defense, attempted to shut the USO Haifa Center (in Haifa, Israel) between 1987-90, when he headed up USO (Hat Tip: Sunlight).

Hagel, who served as president and CEO of the World USO from 1987 to 1990, expressed intense opposition to the USO Haifa Center during a tumultuous 1989 meeting with Jewish leaders, according to multiple sources involved in the fight to keep the post open.

“He said to me, ‘Let the Jews pay for it’,” said Marsha Halteman,
director for military and law enforcement programs at the Jewish
Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), which led the battle to
keep USO Haifa operational.

Hagel’s campaign to close the storied USO port struck many observers,
including the U.S. Navy and congressional leaders, as misguided. Those
same critics argue today that Hagel’s animosity toward the Jewish state
leaves him unsuited to be the nation’s next defense secretary.

“He essentially told us that if we wanted to keep the USO [in Haifa]
open—and when I say ‘we’, he meant ‘the Jews’—he said the Jews could pay
for it,” said Halteman, who recalled being taken aback by the comment.

“I told him at the time that I found his comments to be anti-Semitic,” she said. “He was playing into that dual loyalty thing.”

...

Those present at that 1989 meeting over Haifa described the encounter
as an indicator of what they said is Hagel’s hostility towards the
Jewish state.

“An indication of Hagel’s early less-than-warm feelings toward Israel
came in the late 1980s when, as the president of the USO, he sought to
defund the popular USO facility in the Israeli port city of Haifa,”
JINSA wrote in a recent newsletter.

The USO port in Haifa quickly became a popular destination
for the U.S. Navy’s Sixth Fleet upon its opening in 1984. American
soldiers and sailors were treated to tours of Israel and mingled with
Haifa’s eclectic population.

The port soon became a symbol of the burgeoning military relationship between the U.S. and Israel.

“One of the most visible signs of the U.S.-Israel strategic
cooperation has been the regular calls of the U.S. Sixth Fleet in
Haifa,” a 1986 news report stated.

But budgetary constraints at the USO in the late 1980s led Hagel to put the Haifa port on the chopping block, sources said.

“There were a few USOs that showed up on his list as being in trouble
financially and that he thought he needed to cut,” Halteman said.

“But even at the time, there were not budgetary problems at the Haifa
USO,” she said. “In fact it was thriving. Hundreds of people were going
through those doors weekly.”

When news of Hagel’s decision to close the port reached Capitol Hill,
a delegation of lawmakers and others expressed fierce opposition,
according to news reports.

“The closure decision came under heavy fire from the citizens of Haifa, the Sixth Fleet and American-Jewish circles,” the Jerusalem Postreported at the time.

Nearly everyone but Hagel supported the base, according to one Jewish communal official who is familiar with the controversy.

“The backlash was so vociferous—including from the Navy and from
Congress—that not only did the closing get reversed but [Hagel] had to
expand the base,” said the source.

However, sources said Hagel refused to permit the USO, which was
teetering on bankruptcy at the time, to fund fully the Haifa port.

“Chuck Hagel said the Haifa port is costing the U.S. too much [and]
that if the Jews wanted one, the Jews should do the fundraising,” said
one source involved in protecting the port’s funding.

A Jewish member of the USO’s board ultimately volunteered to secure funding for the port.

Apparently, all records of this meeting have been disappeared down the memory hole at the USO. What a coincidence!

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About Me

I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-three years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 10 to 31 years and seven grandchildren. Our eldest daughter and eldest son are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com